Back to 1984: Hunting in the Mountains

Chapter 30 Earn 25 dollars!
Yu Qiutang thought to himself, you think you are the only one who understands.

I know as much as you do about the wild animals in this mountain, or rather, I know much more.

Because civets have a special scent, they like to leave it on nearby rocks, tree trunks, etc. to mark their location and attract companions and cubs to gather.

If you know the location where the baby civets are caught, you can smear the secretions of the mother civet's scent glands to the nearby area, and the baby civets will follow the smell and come out, and you can catch the whole family at once.

The reason why the small civet is more expensive than other things is that it is not mainly used for eating meat, let alone skinning, but if it is caught alive, it can be artificially domesticated and cut for profit.

The civet incense of the small civet is a precious medicinal material. The civet can be harvested several times a year. When these traffickers find the civet cubs, they will sell them to organizations that collect civet incense, making extraordinary profits.

The old man found that Yu Qiutang was not an ordinary person. He could see through his thoughts. He knew that it would be impossible to fool him. So he smiled and said, "Young man, let's find a place to talk?"

Yu Qiutang nodded: "Okay."

Since you have met an expert, there is no need to bother with others. This old man also knows that he is not simple and will definitely not continue to try to fool people.

After putting the little civet back into the bag, they followed the old man and prepared to leave the market, carrying the bag. Some people wanted to try it, but were ultimately intimidated by the price and could only watch this business pass.

The two continued walking west and came to a wheat field. The wheat had just been harvested and the farmer was thinking of leaving the stubble. There was no sowing or plowing yet, and the wheat stubble was still more than half a foot high in the field.

The old man stopped, took out a pack of Hongtashan cigarettes, and gave one to Yu Qiutang. Yu Qiutang shook his head and said, "I don't smoke."

Hongtashan was considered a pretty good cigarette at that time, and Yu Qiutang actually smoked in his previous life and was a heavy smoker, but in this life he had not yet learned how to smoke and decided to stop smoking altogether.

Smoking is harmful to your health. Even if you don’t feel anything, your family members will smell the secondhand smoke, which is definitely not good in the long run.

Seeing that he didn't smoke, the old man put the cigarette in his mouth, took out a few matches and lit a few before he lit the cigarette in the strong wind.

"What's your name, young man?"

“My last name is Yu.”

"Oh, Brother Yu, my last name is Qin, you can call me Brother Qin."

Yu Qiutang nodded.

"I didn't expect that Brother Yu, at such a young age, could know so much. It really surprised me."

Yu Qiutang just smiled and didn't continue talking about this topic. Instead, he said with a smile: "Brother Qin, I have something else to say. Let's be frank. Just tell us what you think. If we can do it, we will do it. If we can't do it, I will talk to you later."

Before Old Man Qin could say anything, he asked, "A female black-footed civet cat, plus two or three or four or five small black-footed civet cats, how much are you going to give me, Old Man Qin?"

Old Man Qin smiled and said, "That's not the case. Now we can only say that there is a possibility that this thing has cubs. Whether it is true or not is still hard to say. It is also possible that the little guys have already left the nest and I can't find any of them."

"It's not impossible. I understand that. So, all in all, what do you think?" Yu Qiutang said with understanding.

Old Man Qin thought for a moment and said, "Let me propose an idea. I'll give you 25 for this female, and I'll give you one for each of the remaining small ones you find. We'll talk about how much you'll give each one when you find them."

When Yu Qiutang heard this, he immediately shook his head.

"Brother Qin, I understand what you mean, but I don't like making things so complicated. I do have an idea. Do you want to hear it?"

"Tell me."

"How about this, you give me 25 yuan for the female, and then I tell you where the female is, and you can find it yourself, but you need to spend another 25 to buy this location, what do you think?" "That is to say, if I don't find any, I will lose 25 yuan, right?"

Yu Qiutang smiled and said, "It's possible. In business, there are definitely gains and losses. On the other hand, as long as you find a small one, you'll make back your investment. If you find two, three, or even four or five, wouldn't that be a big profit?"

Old Man Qin was slightly startled.

What Yu Qiutang said is indeed correct. This is more like a game of gambling on stones. It all depends on luck.

He thought for a moment and then said, "Let me take another look at this female."

"Okay."

Yu Qiutang opened the bag again. This time, Old Qin looked at it carefully for a long time, repeatedly looked at the belly of the little civet cat, touched his chin and thought, and finally made up his mind.

"I promise you, I'll give you a total of 50 yuan. But there's a problem..."

"You mean, how can I guarantee that I'll tell you the real location?"

Old Qin was stunned again.

He looked at Yu Qiutang in surprise. This thought had just popped into his mind, and Yu Qiutang guessed it immediately.

This young man is really meticulous.

He smiled awkwardly, "That's right, I told Brother Yu openly that the money I gave you was not a small sum, it was enough for more than a month's salary for a worker in a state-owned factory. If I was cheated, I would lose a lot."

"Brother Qin, you are worrying too much," Yu Qiutang tied the bag again, "This problem is easy to solve. You just need to pay me 25 yuan first, which is the price of the female civet cat. You can give me the remaining 25 yuan when I take you to the location today. I believe that when you arrive at the scene, you should be able to judge whether I am deceiving you, right?"

"That's natural. When a civet is frightened, it will excrete something, and the surrounding grass and trees will change color when they come into contact with it, and it will leave a smell that will not completely dissipate within a few days."

"Brother Qin really understands."

Old Qin was a little shy after being praised like this. He scratched his head and said, "Heroes emerge young. I have accumulated this experience through half a lifetime of exploration. I think that Brother Yu has such a profound foundation at such a young age. His future is definitely limitless."

"Haha~" Yu Qiutang laughed, took the money handed over by Old Qin, and felt the warmth of the money, "I'm just living a life, I don't have any ideas."

Shaking two ten-dollar bills and five one-dollar bills in his hand, he said with satisfaction, "I'll take the money. Keep the things for you. This guy is very fierce. Don't get bitten. It's no easier than being bitten by a dog."

Old Man Qin took the bag and was very satisfied. "So, Brother Yu, do you have anything else to do today?"

"Yes, I have something else to do. I'm selling snacks at the food street. I may need to buy some other things... How about this, meet me at the bottom of the Qingquan Tower at 3 pm and I'll take you back with me."

"Okay, then it's settled."

"It's a word."

After the two men talked and agreed, Old Man Qin happily carried his things back to the Wild Animal Market, wanting to see if there was anything else he could pick up at a bargain. Yu Qiutang, on the other hand, secretly put the money into the small pocket on his underwear without telling anyone.

This pocket was sewn by my mother when she was alive, for the purpose of holding money. Today I finally have money to put in it.

That was quite happy.

(End of this chapter)